Lawyer Claims Crime Itself Proves DeHoyos Is Insane : Courts: No one in his right mind could commit such a heinous murder as that of 9-year-old girl, he says. An earlier conviction on the same charges was overturned.

Richard Lucio DeHoyos must have been insane when he kidnaped, raped and murdered a 9-year-old girl because no one in his right mind would commit such a heinous crime, his attorney told jurors Tuesday.

Defense attorney Milton C. Grimes pleaded with jurors to decide that his client was insane on March 20, 1989, when he killed Nadia Puente in a motel room. An insanity finding would spare DeHoyos the death penalty, but Grimes asked jurors to set aside perceptions that an insanity plea is a clever legal maneuver to escape punishment.

“The first reaction is ‘Kill him,’ or ‘Hang the bastard.’ Insanity is about the easiest thing in the world to reject” as a defense, Grimes said, asking jurors to decide the case based on the evidence, not their emotions.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Gannon Jr. also told jurors to decide the case based on the evidence that the prosecutor said proves that DeHoyos was aware of his actions when he committed the crimes.

Gannon told jurors to carefully scrutinize the testimony of expert witnesses called by the defense, including psychologists and psychiatrists who determined that DeHoyos suffers from a mental disability that causes irrational, violent outbreaks that led to the girl’s death.

Some of the expert witnesses called by the defense contradicted each other, while another admitted to jurors that he believed that DeHoyos was trying to fake a mental illness, Gannon recalled for jurors. Despite DeHoyos’ alleged malingering, the doctor concluded that he suffers from a mental disability.

Gannon told jurors to question such testimony because some of the witnesses have their own agendas and opinions to advance.

Jurors are expected to begin deliberations today. If the jury concludes that DeHoyos is insane, he could be committed to a state mental hospital until a court concludes that he is no longer a threat to himself or others.

If jurors determine that DeHoyos is sane, as Gannon contends, jurors then will be asked to recommend whether DeHoyos should die in the gas chamber or spend the rest of his life in prison without any possibility of parole.

Earlier this month, the jury convicted DeHoyos of kidnaping, raping and murdering Nadia after he lured her into his car by posing as a schoolteacher who needed help carrying books. DeHoyos has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, requiring jurors to determine whether he was sane at the time of the crimes.

A jury in 1991 convicted DeHoyos of the same crimes and recommended that he be sentenced to death, but that verdict was overturned due to jury misconduct.

During the first trial, DeHoyos frequently barked like a dog and once rampaged through the courtroom, overturning a table. He has been quiet through most of the retrial but last week jumped from his chair, yelled an expletive and approached Gannon before being subdued, officials said.